First off, a short history lesson is needed. In the 1900’s shortly after the Wright brothers demonstrated controlled heavier-than-air flight, a series of aviation competitions took place to spark the aviation industry. One of the most famous and ambitious competitions was the Orteig Prize, which required a non-stop flight between New York and Paris. The prize was won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927. This sparked a new era in the commercial aviation industry, which today is a multi-billion dollar industry and plays a vital role in other industries. Take note that you can also go on Expedia and book a return-trip from NY to Paris for $729.
The Orteig Prize was a model for Peter Diamandis’ Ansari XPrize; the winner would have to complete two sub-orbital space flights within a week. In October 2004, Burt Rutan of Mojave Aerospace Ventures won the Ansari XPrize of $10M. Soon after, Sir Richard Branson teamed up with Burt Rutan to create Virgin Galactic so that you and I can fly into space for a cool $200,000. How can Virgin Galactic offer a moderately affordable cost? First off, they are a private company that has developed technology with economic sense. While NASA has built sky-scraper-sized rockets, Burt Rutan and his ingenious team have decided to take the more practical and affordable route. A large airplane, called the White Knight, carries a smaller space craft to an altitude of 15 km. At this height the space craft, SpaceShipTwo, rockets upwards to 100 km. This design is reusable, robust, and cheaper!
If the Ansari and Lunar XPrizes have a similar effect as the Orteig Prize, then imagine what commercial space travel will look like 20 years from now! There will be space ports, space pilots, space passengers, space lines, and more. There will also be a whole new set of policies to govern the commercial space industry.
Let’s take a step back to current day. There are little to no rules and policies for commercial space travel. Space is the wild west and companies like Odyssey Moon and Virgin Galactic are pioneers.
When Bob imagines his company landing on the moon in 2011, with a robotic rover scouring the lunar surface, he ponders about some of the ethical issues to which there are no clear-cut legal answers. What is a private company allowed to do on the surface of the moon? How much of the moon can a company bring back to earth? Can a competing space company land near their robot, jeopardizing their robot’s operation? Can a space company sell part of the moon? Is a lunar rover allowed to drive over the footprints of astronauts? Bob tells a story of how Andy Aldrin (Astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s son) jokes: “My mother is going to kill you if you roll over my dad’s footprints.”
Angry mothers are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making correct ethical decisions. International relationships can flare up over access to coveted space materials and the enforcement of corporate space crimes . These ethical issues are catching up as technology has once again outpaced social norms. There must be a new set of policies and laws to govern this new space frontier. Keep reading for upcoming ideas and developments in space commercialization!
